


From the Ashes

by traptrixnepenthes



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: M/M, hi welcome to the first thing i've formally posted regarding my mithos lives au, i like worms. i think they're neat, now warning tags:, some worm talk, suicidal ideation (mentioned mostly in passing), this one takes place postgame in that circumstance however. you'll just have to trust me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:34:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29349015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traptrixnepenthes/pseuds/traptrixnepenthes
Summary: Genis needs help getting the Sages' veggie garden back in proper shape after it got burned by the Desians, and Mithos is the...not-so-perfect person to assist.
Relationships: Genis Sage/Mithos Yggdrasill
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	From the Ashes

To say Mithos was depressed right now was an understatement. He’d always been a bit...lifeless, Genis supposed was a correct term, and had been ever since the two first met, but this was on a completely different level. In a lot of ways, Mithos was more alive now than he ever had been as an angel--in the weeks since the Great Seed had germinated by Mithos’s choice to finally give up on Martel, Genis had learned that Mithos took several hours to totally wake up, and he had a major sweet tooth that Genis was perfectly willing to satisfy, but he hated anything else with too strong a flavor, for instance--but in a lot of ways, he was also a lot more lifeless than he’d been as a “lifeless being”.

Gone was the effortless confidence Mithos had always carried himself with, as was the power that had made him strong over the last several thousand years. Here and now, he was just a fourteen year old half-elf who knew some fancy magic tricks and still had a major mistrust of humans, and he’d silently gripped the back of Genis’s shirt as he’d introduced him to the other residents of Iselia. Mithos was someone they met on their journey, he’d said, who had become a very important friend of his. He didn’t have a family anymore, so he was going to be living with the Sages now.

Most of the residents accepted him immediately, no questions asked. After having spent so much time in Tethe’alla, Genis had honestly been a bit nervous coming back to Iselia, but these were still the people that had accepted how he and Raine weren’t human long before anyone else had. Mithos’s magical ability, which still far outstripped Genis’s own, was just something to be amazed by and praise him for whenever he demonstrated it--when they’d been rebuilding their house, Mithos had been able to able to make the process go so much faster that it was done in less than a week, and the townsfolk had been awed at how he could lift so many planks of wood at once with just a few gestures of his hands. But he was still quiet, still barely responded to anyone that wasn’t Genis or Raine, and Genis had seen enough of his magic to know that regardless of how powerful it seemed right now, it was still a lot weaker than it had been while he had a Cruxis crystal stuck to his chest.

It was kind of hard to describe, really. Mithos had always had this sense of melancholy around him from the moment Genis had first met him, and he’d always been soft-spoken and gentle when he wasn’t angry, but he’d also always seemed so purposeful in what he did. He’d given up the crystal, his soul was firmly inside his own body, but now that all that purpose was gone he seemed as empty as the other angels that had been in Welgaia. His anger and hatred were gone now, and nothing had come to replace them.

Genis wasn’t sure what to do. He hadn’t been so naive as to think that convincing Mithos to abandon a goal he’d been striving for for four thousand years was going to make everything perfect and happy or anything, but he definitely didn’t know where to go from here. They hadn’t had to kill Mithos, the Great Seed had sprouted, the worlds had been reunified, mana was returning to healthy levels around the planet… _Technically_ everything had gone perfectly, but for Genis, it was like he was staring at an unfinished puzzle with no more pieces left to put in place.

Right now, Mithos was sitting on his bed with his knees tucked up to his chest, staring blankly out the window at people going about their day. The other kids their age were all at the schoolhouse with Raine, but much to her chagrin, Mithos refused to attend. It wasn’t that he was secretly a worldly genius or anything like that--something else Genis had learned about him in the last few weeks was that actually, Mithos had never gotten anything close to a formal education. Heimdall didn’t bother educating half-elves, and while Kratos had taught him how to read and write along with enough arithmetic to navigate what would be needed on a day to day basis, Mithos’s pride was apparently too much to let him admit that to the humans in town and attend class alongside them. Staying locked up in Vinheim for thousands of years with all those books did mean he had a pretty broad knowledge base about things like magical research and other esoteric fields that honestly didn't have much application in normal life, but the idea of struggling with multiplication tables or long division in front of people he didn’t know was too much for him, so he just...never went.

Genis didn’t, either. Raine wasn’t happy about that, but she did understand his motivation for it, and never pestered him too hard about it. He was too worried about Mithos’s condition to want to leave him alone for that long, but mostly all Mithos did was watch the world outside, read silently, and help with chores around the house whenever Genis or Raine asked him to. Even in the lifeless world of angels that Welgaia and Vinheim had been, Mithos had still done more than...that.

Genis had to do _something._ He was the reason Mithos was here now, and not dead like everyone else had wanted him to be. Including how...Mithos had wanted himself to be. Just spending days aimlessly like this wasn’t going to help, but it still felt like he had to treat Mithos like a delicate piece of glasswork. Press a little too hard, and he’d shatter into pieces.

“Um… Mithos, is there anything you want for lunch?”

Mithos didn’t look away from the window. “Anything you make is good, Genis.”

That wasn’t a real answer. “Is it okay if I just heat up some leftovers from dinner?”

“Sure.”

“...Can you come get the table ready while I do that?”

“Okay.”

Those single-word responses made Genis feel a little bit guilty for asking them at all, but at least he was still responding out loud. There had been a couple days where Mithos had only responded by nodding or shaking his head.

Genis made a new pot of rice for their reheated curry, and while that was getting done, Mithos pulled out bowls and spoons. It was kind of pointless asking him to do it, since it only took a couple seconds with his magic, but making him at least participate a little still felt important. It was only a little bit, but every little bit helped...or something like that.

Meals without Raine were usually silent, and that was something else Genis wanted to change, but he wasn’t sure what they should talk about, so he just never said much of anything. He wanted Mithos to talk more, participate in life more, find a reason to want to learn again…and just watching and waiting felt like it wasn’t good enough.

Well, Genis did have a bit of an idea. He didn’t know how well it was going to work, but it was still better than nothing, right?

“Mithos?” He waited until Mithos looked up at him. “When we’re done eating, can you help me in the garden?”

A small pause. “I didn’t know you had a garden.”

“Well… Technically we don’t right _now,_ since it all got burned up a while back, but I like using ingredients I grew myself, so I’ve been wanting to replant.” It had never been a particularly big garden or anything, but he’d had some strawberry plants, a couple big pots that had tomato vines, a carrot patch...things like that. Enough for himself and Raine, with enough left over to give some to Lloyd and Colette if they wanted any. “It’s a lot of work, so I’d really like it if you could give me a hand!”

“Alright.” Mithos lowered his gaze, just a little. “I’ve never done any gardening before, though.”

“That’s okay. I can show you everything you need to know, so don’t worry about it.”

Mithos nodded, and smiled a little. “Thank you, Genis.”

With another awkward meal out of the way, the next step was actually dragging Mithos outside to start pulling up weeds. Genis made him take off the mantle and change his shirt to one that wasn’t pure white, and then they went outside together for the first time in...days, probably. Mithos never left on his own. Genis looked mournfully over the remains of his garden--not only had it gotten totally scorched, but it was also overgrown now after their months away from Iselia--and then saw Mithos reach one hand out and the leaves of the weeds in front of them start to bunch up.

“Ah, wait!” Genis grabbed his hand and pushed it down. “No magic. We have to do this all by hand.”

Mithos grimaced. “...That’s such a pain.”

“I know it is, but we have to do it like this, okay? C’mon, I’ll show you how to do it.”

Genis kneeled down in front of one section, and gestured for Mithos to come sit next to him, which he did. Even in the state he was in now, every gesture he made was an elegant one, and maybe Genis stared a little bit when Mithos tucked a bit of blonde hair behind his ear. Not as long and pointy as an elf ear, not the perfectly round shape of a human ear, but somewhere in between. Something that Genis, Raine, and Mithos himself had all hidden over the years, but now…

“Genis?”

“Oh, uh! Right, sorry.” Genis pulled his eyes away from Mithos and gestured to the weeds in front of them. “You have to grab them by the base and pull them up gently. If you rush it or pull too hard, then the roots will stay in the dirt and they’ll be able to grow back. That’s why you have to do them all one at a time.”

Mithos looked at the garden’s remains and made a face. Genis had done this before, and it still felt a little intimidating, so he completely understood Mithos’s reluctance. “...Alright. I guess we just need to get started.”

“Yeah, that’s the spirit! Thanks so much for helping out, Mithos. This’d be a lot to handle on my own.”

Genis smiled at Mithos, and Mithos smiled back, just a little. “I did say that if there’s anything I can do for you, I will. It’s easier if we’re together.”

And so their work began. It was always easier for Genis to do hard manual labor like this if he could also talk at the same time, so he started rattling off facts about the weeds they were pulling up. These ones had medicinal value if prepared the right way, these ones were edible, and so on and so forth. Mithos asked a few questions, such as the extremely logical _if these weeds are so good why are we pulling them up_ , but mostly didn’t complain as a small pile started forming behind them. Genis was faster than him at it, but that was mostly just from having several years of practice, and it meant he got to watch Mithos while he worked at it.

He wasn’t very good at being delicate with the roots, and Genis saw him frown every time a weed came up without theirs. He’d been a little hesitant about digging into the dirt to pull out the root structure itself at the start, but his hands were already dirty enough as it was from the ones he had pulled up nicely, and he was making good progress. He was being a lot more expressive than Genis had seen him be in the weeks since he’d let go of the Great Seed, and that was definitely a good sign.

Genis got tired out first, and sat to one side to catch his breath while Mithos continued to work. Mithos was definitely a hard worker, but that probably went without saying; he _was_ someone who’d dedicated himself for whole lifetimes to just one goal. He was sort of like Lloyd, in that when he got focused on something, it was the only thing he could think about, but Genis had already learned the hard way that comparing Mithos to Lloyd was a good way to irritate him, so he didn’t say anything. He just watched quietly as Mithos muttered words Raine would _not_ have approved of at the more stubborn roots.

Once he could get up again, Genis got some water for both of them, and then got back to work himself, too. They finished up with the weeding soon enough, and then both of them looked over their hard work. It still didn’t look like much, but it was different enough from how it looked when they started, and they were both covered in dirt, so there was definitely one thing they'd accomplished: Raine yelling at them for making messes of themselves once she got back.

“Oof.” Genis was standing with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. “Good job, Mithos. I definitely...couldn’t have done that on my own.”

“...Don’t push yourself too much, Genis. Do you need to rest?” When he looked up, Mithos was leaning down a little, looking worried. “How much more did you want to get done today?”

“Tilling the soil… And planting the seeds…” Genis took a moment to take a deep breath. “And start watering them. That’s totally doable.”

“...Genis,” Mithos said, and the tone in his voice was unmistakable: there was absolutely no possible way they were going to get all of that done today, not with Genis’s pathetic stamina.

“Let’s at least get the soil ready? And then we can finish up tomorrow.” Genis stood up again, and Mithos stood up with him. “Ah, and then we should probably do laundry and get ourselves cleaned up, huh… There’s so many chores that need to get done, jeez.”

“Let’s just take it one step at a time.” Mithos’s kind smile was back. It felt like it’d been ages since Genis last saw it, and he wanted to savor every second of it. “Are you feeling better now?”

“Yeah… I think.”

Mithos wasn’t exactly satisfied with that answer, but he didn’t press it. Luckily though, Genis’s gardening tools had mostly gone untouched by the fire, and he handed one of the hoes to Mithos. This time he got to demonstrate proper tilling techniques, which were a lot more difficult for him--smack the flat edge into the ground, and then rip it through the dirt until it was nice and aerated. It took him a couple tries to manage it properly even once, owing to his terrible upper arm strength, and by the time he'd properly shown Mithos the technique he was already exhausted again.

“That’s...one nice thing about the fire…” Genis wheezed as Mithos started to till the soil. “Ash is good…for most plants...once you work it into the soil…”

“...Genis, I think you need to sit down again.”

He didn’t need any more of a reason, so Genis let himself collapse onto the ground, his arms and lungs burning. “Urgh… I thought I’d be able to...do more this time…”

Mithos walked over and sat down next to him, looking worried. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be...fine...in a little…”

“How did you ever do this before, if you didn’t use magic?”

Genis waved one hand, a little limply. “Got...Lloyd to do it…”

The look on Mithos’s face was, once again, unmistakable--he was trying _so_ hard not to laugh. It only took him a few moments before that effort failed entirely and he started laughing, a sound so full of joy that Genis couldn’t feel too annoyed by the fact that Mithos was laughing at _him_. A couple people who’d been walking down the road glanced over at them, and for once, Mithos didn’t care that humans were staring at them. “Really? And you never thought about what you’d do if he wasn’t here? Not even once?”

“Ugh…” But Genis was smiling too. He was just so happy to hear Mithos happy again. “Never thought...all this would happen… And besides I...have you now...right?”

“...Right.” Mithos’s smile was gentle now, the gentle, caring expression that Genis had become so familiar with during their time together. “I’ll do all the heavy lifting for you from now on, so you don’t need to worry about Lloyd anymore.”

Mithos still hadn’t quite gotten rid of his jealous streak about Lloyd, but Genis couldn’t find himself to say anything about it this time. It wasn’t like Lloyd was going to be coming back to Iselia anytime soon, anyways--their Exspheres were the first ones that had been given up to Lloyd on his journey to collect all of them and make sure they couldn’t be used to hurt anyone again. Maybe by the time he came back, Mithos would finally stop being so clingy like that, not that Genis actually minded too much. He just wanted two of the people he cared about most in the world to get along with one another, too. “As long as...we stick to staying together forever...it’s fine, right?”

“...Yeah.” It seemed like something about those words hit Mithos a bit differently than usual, maybe just from how it was the first time they’d talked about the promise since everything with the Great Seed. “We’re still going to be together forever.”

Mithos sat with Genis a little longer, until he could sit up again, and then Mithos hauled him back to his feet and helped him over to a better place to sit and watch. He had to agree to not actually work on turning the soil anymore, and once he said it out loud, Mithos got back to it. Even doing it on his own, it didn’t take him very long to finish everywhere they’d weeded; where there had once been weeds and burnt vegetation, there was now a perfectly prepared field, ready to grow new things.

Mithos came and sat next to him, wiping the sweat off his face, but he wasn't even breathing hard. Truly, life could be so unfair. “That _was_ hard work.”

Genis just laughed. “See why I needed your help?”

“There’s no way you could have done that on your own,” Mithos said, and unlike many things he said, this one didn’t feel like an accusation, just a fact. And it _was_ a fact. If Genis hadn’t had Lloyd _or_ Mithos, this would’ve never gotten done. “I’m glad I could help you.”

“And thank you so much for being willing to do most of it… Next time, I’ll get more done on my own.”

“Don’t...push yourself too hard, Genis.”

Genis could still feel his heart rate taking its own sweet time to come back down to normal, but he was perfectly happy to sit outside with Mithos a while longer. It’d still be a while until Raine came home, so he might as well enjoy it while it lasted. He would be the first to admit that he hated being tired and sweaty, but there was still something nice about having worked hard right alongside someone else. Mithos managed to look serene and elegant even with sweat rolling down his forehead and dirt smudged on his face and his hair all mussed up.

Their turning of the soil had been the first time in a while for this area, and the little lives that existed around the field had come to investigate. Some bugs, a few spiders crawling over the handles of their tools, and some earthworms, poking out of the dirt. One of them wiggled its way over to Mithos’s foot, and he stared at it. Genis put his hand out to it, and it poked its little eyeless face (was that its face?) against his fingers before he scooped it up.

“Worms are good,” he said, watching it wiggle around in his hands. “Lots of worms mean the soil is healthy. We’ll be able to grow some good stuff, I think.”

Mithos watched the worm curiously, as if he’d never seen one before, so Genis offered it to him. “Wanna hold it?”

“...It’s kind of...gross.”

“Aw, don’t say that. It’s what’s gonna make all your hard work worth it.”

Mithos still looked a little uncertain, but he held his hands out, and Genis dropped the worm in his hands. It was still just squirming around, and the longer Mithos held it, watching it carefully, the more a look of...something like wonder started to show on his face. Genis started telling him about earthworms and what they did for plants, about how they breathed through their skin and how their digestive system ran the entire length of their body and how its body just consisted of a tube inside another tube.

“...and this,” he said, pointing to the pale band halfway down its body, “means it’s gonna have baby worms. That’s where its eggs are. So we’re gonna get more worms, and our eventual veggies are gonna be that much better.”

Mithos was now completely enraptured by the worm, holding it almost reverently. He’d listened silently to Genis’s explanations of it, nodding along sometimes, but not saying a word. “It’s...so alive.”

“It sure is.”

“And…” Mithos hesitated a moment before looking up at Genis. “And...I’m alive, too.”

Genis smiled, and leaned his head against Mithos’s shoulder. He was so different now than he had been even just this morning--it had taken a few weeks, but Mithos was back to life, too. “You definitely are.”

A few more moments, and then Mithos gently placed the worm back in the dirt, and they watched it as it burrowed its way back into the ground. Tomorrow they had a lot more work to do--both the two of them, and that little worm, too.

Genis finally pulled himself to his feet. “Raine’ll be back soon… I should probably get started on dinner. Is there anything you want, Mithos?”

“Um… You need to do the laundry too, right? So…” Genis turned to look at him, and Mithos looked a little embarrassed. “It wouldn’t be as good as you, but I could try making something, since you’re already tired.”

“Sure!”

The plan had been successful, and already, Mithos was seeming a lot more like how he used to. Genis was more than happy with how the afternoon had gone, even if he was going to be absolutely dead on his feet tomorrow.

They went back inside, but after Genis closed the door behind them, Mithos grabbed his shirt again from behind, so that Genis couldn’t turn to look at him. “Genis, I’m...sorry.”

Deep breath. “For what?”

“...The fire. If it wasn’t for me, then the Desians would have never…”

“It’s--” _It’s not your fault_ were the words that Genis had been about to say, but that wasn’t true. Even if Mithos hadn’t personally lit the Sages’ house on fire, it was still something that had only happened because of him. So Genis just took another deep breath, thought carefully about how he was going to reply, and then said, “But you helped us rebuild, right?”

Mithos was quiet for a moment. It was still so very, very odd to see him hesitant and uncertain. In some ways, Genis still expected him to have all the answers to everything, but now Mithos was turning to him for guidance. “...I did.”

“That’s good enough for now. Okay?”

“...Okay.”

He let go of Genis’s shirt, and then Genis turned around to him, making sure he was smiling big for him. It was a completely sincere one, too. “So, don’t worry about that right now. We still need to finish getting ready for Raine to come back.”

“Alright. And...thank you, Genis.”

It was a thank-you for a lot more than just that--Genis could tell from the look in his eyes and the weight in his voice. Maybe it was a thank-you for dragging him back outside and making him actually do some hard work. Maybe it was for making him feel a bit better, after he’d lost everything he’d worked so hard for. Maybe...it was for being why Mithos chose this path, instead of one that ended in trying to atone for his crimes with his death.

It didn’t really matter in the end, though. Genis’s response would’ve been the same no matter what. “Of course! If there’s anything I can do for _you,_ I want to too, you know.”

“...You really are amazing, Genis.”

“I should be the one saying that to you! Now come on, let’s get started.”

“Yes, let’s.”

Genis smiled, and Mithos smiled too. There was a lot to be said for being just a pair of half-elf kids, nothing more or less special about them.


End file.
